igable as far as Quebec. By the 8th the ice in George Bay and 

 Northumberland Strait was mostly gone and that route was con- 

 sidered navigable. All points of the river and gulf were then free 

 of ice with the exception of a little scattered ice in the vicinity of 

 the Magdalen Islands and a small string just southeast of St.' Paul 

 Island. Some local winter ice remained in the vicinity of Gaspe 

 Bay, however, until 17 April after which date the entire gulf and 

 river area were free of ice. 



This was an unusually light season in the St. Lawrence-Cape 

 Breton Island area. Local freezing was exceptionally light as 

 was evidenced by the reports concerning Sydney Harbor. The 

 volume of ice drifting through Cabot Strait was exceptionally 

 small and at no time did this ice endanger the shipping routes 

 north of Sable Island. The ports on the Newfoundland south and 

 southwest coasts were ice free throughout the season. The shipping 

 routes to Louisburg were blocked for brief intervals two or three 

 times by easterly winds moving the field ice to the beach but shift- 

 ing winds created a shore lead and enabled ships to reach that part 

 without considerable delay. The routes through the gulf and river 

 to Quebec were free of ice and navigable earlier than during the 

 average season. 



NEWFOUNDLAND-LABRADOR AREA 

 February 



Little information is available concerning ice conditions in this 

 area during December and January but reports of early February 

 indicate that the appearance of field ice off the Labrador and 

 northern Newfoundland coasts was not far from average expected 

 conditions. By the 7th the ice field had moved southward to Fogo 

 Island and by mid-February the southern limit had rounded Cape 

 Bonavista. Light ice had formed in the coastal waters and a scat- 

 tered, broken field of this ice extended southward along the Avalon 

 Peninsula to the vicinity of Cape Broyle. By the 22d this light slob 

 ice east of the Avalon Peninsula had mostly disintegrated but the 

 southern edge of the field ice was rounding Cape St. Francis and 

 the ice was spreading eastward along the 100-fathom curve around 

 the northern edge of the Grand Banks, reaching the 49th meridian 

 by the end of the month. 



A few bergs were present in the southern extremities of the 

 field ice, one having appeared off Baccalieu Island on the 7th and 

 drifted southward past the 48th parallel by the 11th and south of 

 the 47th by the 16th, Six bergs are estimated to have crossed the 

 48th parallel during the month of February. For a graphic presen- 

 tation of the movements of bergs and field ice during February 

 see figure 34. 



90 



